Colorado Dem Governor Brings Staff to Super Bowl at Taxpayer Expense

Hickenlooper isn’t the first Democratic governor of Colorado to spend taxpayer cash on his staff for the Super Bowl.

On Sunday, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and his staff descended on MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for the Super Bowl. While Hickenlooper traveled to the Super Bowl on his own dime – he paid for airfare, tickets, and lodging for himself and his son – he did let the taxpayers of Colorado pick up the tab for his chief of staff, Roxanne White, and his senior media adviser, Max Potter, who got comped on their lodging and airfare. Hickenlooper spent his time on the East Coast appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos (ABC) on Sunday.

Hickenlooper isn’t the first Democratic governor of Colorado to spend taxpayer cash on his staff for the Super Bowl. In 1998, Governor Roy Romer brought his deputy press secretary, Matt Sugar, to the Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers on the public dime.

Republican Governor Bill Owens, by contrast, paid for himself when he attended the Super Bowl in 1999. He went by himself.